Bourque, Desharnais lead Canadiens over Sabres 6-1

MONTREAL – Rene Bourque and David Desharnais each scored twice to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 6-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.

Carey Price made 30 saves for the Canadiens for his fifth win of the season. Lars Eller added a goal and two assists, while rookie Brendan Gallagher also scored.

Ryan Miller stopped 17 shots over two periods for Buffalo before being replaced in the third by backup Jhonas Enroth.

Bourque injected some life into what had been an uneventful first period with Montreal’s 10th power-play goal of the season. Andrei Markov’s stretch pass – tipped along the way by Tomas Plekanec – found Brian Gionta along the right boards. Gionta waited before passing it on to Bourque, who drove to the net for his second of the season.

Montreal took a 2-0 lead for the fifth time in its seven games early in the second. Gallagher and fellow rookie Alex Galchenyuk completed a nifty 2-on-1 that Gallagher capped with his third of the season as the puck went in off Sabres defenseman Christian Ehrhoff at 2:03.

Desharnais, who has struggled this season, finally got his first at 10:08. Just seconds after Sabres forward Tyler Ennis hit the crossbar, the diminutive Canadiens center took a pass from Eller in the high slot and fired a shot past Miller.

Eller added to Buffalo’s misery with his first goal of the season just 28 seconds later.

Paul Stastny also scored and Semyon Varlamov made 25 saves for Colorado, which remained unbeaten in three home games. Matt Duchene and McGinn added assists.

Devan Dubnyk stopped 37 shots and Nail Yakupov scored for the Oilers.

The injury-riddled Avalanche suffered another loss when defenseman Ryan Wilson left the game in the second period with a leg injury. He did not return.

Even without Wilson, Colorado was able to hold on as the Oilers tried desperately for the equalizer in the third. They hit a post and Varlamov made a big save on Ales Hemsky on a point-blank shot midway through the period.

Edmonton’s last best chance came on a power play with 3:17 left. They pulled Dubnyk for an extra attacker 30 seconds later but the Avalanche took advantage when Stastny jumped out of the box and scored an empty-net goal to seal it. It was his third goal in the last two games.

Edmonton got on the board first when Hemsky sent a pass through the legs of defenseman Greg Zanon right to Yakupov, who beat Varlamov 58 seconds into the game.

The lead stood until late in the second period. Colorado, which minutes earlier failed to score on a 30-second 5-on-3 power play, tied it when Parenteau redirected a shot in front of the net with 7:53 left in the frame. It was his team-leading sixth goal of the season.

The Avalanche didn’t wait long for their second goal. Duchene stole the puck from Hemsky along the boards and fed a charging McGinn, who tipped the pass over Dubnyk’s right shoulder to make it 2-1.